Finnish Wonder

Finnish students do so well in international testing that Finnish teachers are the new model of teaching excellence. It is indeed wonderful that they are so accomplished.

It speaks to the premium placed on education by the Finnish culture that the best students at university level choose teaching as a viable career option. They make a conscious choice to become teachers. This is as opposed to the Indian or the US system where the best university students seem to prefer the financially lucrative technical field, and the remaining graduates drift into teaching. The Indian value system is supposed to value education highly; however this theory is not apparent in our society. A look at the Sunday matrimonial columns will bear out this truth. How many eligible young men and women want to marry teachers?

The Finnish system has intelligent, motivated, educated, respected and well-compensated teachers. This is in contrast to many other educational systems where teachers have minimal specialized training, are unmotivated (teacher absenteeism in government schools in India is supposedly chronic), and inadequately compensated. It might all tie in to the value society places on teachers, lip service aside.

But this is a one-sided look, I think. What about the student body? The Finnish student demographic is much more homogeneous compared to either the American or Indian demographic. Finland, being a socialistic welfare state, ensures that there is a fair amount of social and economic uniformity among its citizens. This would do much to eliminate the teacher-student disconnect. When teachers are from a different socio-economic background from their students, it’s hard to connect with them. I remember telling more than a few parents to check their children’s grades online, until I understood that many of my students don’t happen to have much technology in their homes, among other things….

Immigrant students and second language learners might also be a less pressing concern for Finnish teachers, I imagine. In contrast, almost every year, at least half my students are English Language learners, having emigrated from some other country. Either their parents, or they themselves, were born outside the US. I imagine Indians classrooms must be similar. Maybe children from migrant working families come from adjoining states in search of work, and speak a different language. My students also come from other problems inherent in low-income neighborhoods. Incarcerated parents, hunger, abuse, drugs and crime are fairly common themes in my students’ families. I would imagine some variant of this theme applies in Indian government schools as well. Teaching in such circumstances is hardly ideal.

Indian and American teachers do an excellent job with middle-class homogeneous student populations. Indian students with a private school education immigrate to all parts of the world, and are usually the most successful immigrant group wherever they go. A look at the link between American real estate prices and students’ test scores shows that American teachers do a fine job of educating privileged students pre-primed for success.

Students from economically privileged families and neighborhoods consistently do well on standardized tests. It is not too hard (I would never call teaching an easy job) to teach motivated students who are primed to learn. But how successful would Finnish teachers be in Indian and American public schools, I wonder…?

When administrators transfer comparative performance pressure to classroom teachers, one has to wonder if it is a fair comparison to only compare teachers, while ignoring the student body.

That aside, if I ever had a chance to collaborate with a Finnish teacher in my career, I would value it highly; I dare say I would learn a lot. But then again… they might also learn a thing or two from me.